Jean Reynolds, Ph.D. Polk State College Winter …

1 The Criminal Justice Report Writing Guide for Officers Jean Reynolds, polk State College Winter Haven, Florida The Maple Leaf Press Copyright 2011 Jean Reynolds All rights reserved. ISBN-13: 978-0-578-08294-3. Table of Contents Introduction 3. Pretest 5. Pretest Answer Key 8. Section I: Writing the Report 11. Chapter 1 Why Is Report Writing Important? 15. Chapter 2 Overview of Report Writing 17. Chapter 3 Preparing to Write 25. Chapter 4 Organizing a Report 31. Chapter 5 Writing a Report 33. Chapter 6 Types of Reports 39. Chart: Four Types of Reports 41.

2 Chapter 7 Objectivity 49. Chapter 8 What To Omit 55. Chapter 9 Quoting Exact Words 59. Chapter 10 How Helpful is OJT? 63. Chapter 11 Bullet Style 67. Chapter 12 Active or Passive Voice? 71. Chapter 13 Online Resources for Officers 75. Section II: Solving Sentence Problems 79. Chapter 14 Fragments 81. Chapter 15 Run-on Sentences 85. Chapter 16 Misplaced Modifiers 89. Chapter 17 Parallelism 91. Section III: Professional Sentences 95. Chapter 18 Writing Effective Sentences 97. Chapter 19 Periods and Semicolons 99. Chapter 20 Commas 105. Chapter 21 Comma Rule 1 107.

3 Chapter 22 Comma Rule 2 111. Chapter 23 Comma Rule 3 115. Section IV: Mastering English Usage 117. Chapter 24 Apostrophes 119. Chapter 25 Quotation Marks 123. Chapter 26 Pronouns 125. Chapter 27 Verbs 129. Chapter 28 Subject-Verb Agreement 135. Chapter 29 Capital Letters 139. Chapter 30 Comparisons 143. Chapter 31 Prepositions 147. Chapter 32 Avoiding Common Errors 151. Chapter 33 Myths about Grammar 157. Section V Choosing the Correct Word 161. Chapter 34 Criminal Justice Terminology 163. Chapter 35 Words and Expressions to Avoid 165.

4 Chapter 36 More Words to Watch 171. Chapter 37 Using Plain English 181. Post-test 187. Post-test Answer Key 215. Index 217. About Jean Reynolds 219. Introduction Effective report writing is vital to your criminal-justice career. Your reports are public documents that may be read by supervisors, attorneys, judges, citizens, and reporters. Quality reports impress superiors, win respect from colleagues, and help bring offenders to justice. They facilitate investigations and provide statistics that help shape hiring decisions, budget proposals, and policy changes.

5 If you work for a community agency, your reports will help you prepare for jury trials and may even prevent cases from ending up in court. Defense attorneys who read your reports hoping to find omissions and errors may decide not to try for an acquittal after all. In a correctional institution, your reports are the instruments that begin the disciplinary process. Inmates who experience the consequences of their behavior are more likely to conform to society's standards at the end of their sentences. Your writing skills can help you advance in your career.

6 You'll be prepared to communicate effectively with the media, community leaders, and government officials. Well-written reports help you create a reputation for professionalism, accuracy, and fairness that will stand you in good stead as you start to climb the career ladder. This book offers you a wealth of information about report writing. A pretest will help you assess your strengths and determine which skills need your attention. Section I shows you how to organize and write professional reports. Sections II and III cover sentence skills, Section IV help you avoid usage errors, and Section V covers special words you need to know.

7 A post-test helps you decide what areas need further review. Exercises are provided throughout the book, and an Answer Key allows you to check your progress at each step. Let's get started! 3. INTRODUCTION. Resources for Instructors, Academies, and Agencies A supplemental booklet containing printable exercises and an Answer Key for Chapters 1 12 is available free to authorized users. You can also download instructional PowerPoints for the first 12. chapters. Send an email from your agency, school, or institution to Acknowledgments First I want to thank everyone from the Kenneth C.

8 Thompson Institute of Public Safety who helped me learn about criminal justice and report writing: Charles E. Pottinger, the late Mary Mariani, and Don Shattler. Cheryl Day from polk State College helped me with word- processing issues. Dr. David Kuehl and William Fienga made valuable suggestions. Gretchen Baut from Zoemedia helped with the publishing process and created the supplemental website, And, as always, I thank my husband, Charles Reynolds, for his love and support. 4. PRETEST Instructions: Complete each activity below. When you're finished, check your responses against the Answer Key beginning on page 8.

9 Part I Effective Reports Instructions: Put a check if a sentence meets the requirements for an effective report. Put an X if the sentence does not meet the requirements. ___1. I smelled alcohol on Lennon's breath. ___2. Inmate Johnson was belligerent when I entered his cell. ___3. I looked through the open front door and saw a man with both his hands around a woman's neck. ___4. Carol Todd was watching television while I questioned her husband. ___5. I saw Fowler's car cross the double line three times as he drove down Second Street. ___6.

10 It was obvious that Fowler's driving was impaired, probably by alcohol. ___7. After looking for the point of entry, I asked Barker which items were missing from his apartment. ___8. Inmate Powers refused to cooperate. Part II Effective Word Choices Instructions: Put a check if the wording of the sentence meets the requirements for a modern report. Put an X if it does not. 5. PRETEST. ___1. Sarah Wilson advised me that she had left for work at 7:45 that morning. ___2. A small plastic bag of white powder was found when Inmate Clem Johnson's cell was searched by this officer.